Panasonic has officially announced its intentions to take its smartphones on a global tour, and they’ll kick things off in Europe next March with a slim, squared-off Android slab packing a 4.3 inch OLED display.

The official press release doesn’t offer up many revealing details. Apart from the display’s qHD resolution, the unnamed Panasonic prototype will include an NFC chip (if we’re to believe what’s emblazoned on the rear of the phone beneath its camera), a waterproof and dustproof housing, and a super-slim profile.

Panasonic has shown the phone with both silver and black back panels, and the company has its sights set on selling 1.5 million phones in Europe by the end of 2012 — after shipping additional models. One other certainty is that Panasonic will be taking a page from Sony’s book and making its smartphones play well with other Panasonic devices — like controlling Smart TVs or networked Blu-ray players, or streaming media to them.

From there, it’ll be on to the U.S., China, and the rest of Asia outside Panasonic’s stomping grounds in Japan. They’re hoping to shift around 15 million phones in 2016, though they still feel the home court advantage will be important — the goal in Japan is 6 million.

One thing is certainly clear from the prototype Android unit Panasonic’s showing off: they’re not interested in spending any time locking horns with Apple. The squared-off corners and off-center speaker follow the advice that an expert Apple witness recently offered up to Samsung’s design crew in the highly-publicized ongoing legal spat. Thankfully, there’s no excessive adornment and Panasonic has decided to stick with a razor-thin bezel and slim profile. They’ve also put the brand name proudly on the front of the device… at least on the web images we’ve seen so far.